Day 4520

Not a lot on the agenda today. We got up early because of the unseasonably warm weather. It's still nice outside before the sun comes up. Dawn has decided that she likes walking again. She's really enthusiastic on her early walks now. She hasn't balked or frozen in place for a long time now. This is all good. I hate to get up myself, but the walks are good for me too. After walking a mile or two with Dawn, I'm usually ready to start the day.

My contact at Benro told me to go ahead and apply the patch they sent me to fix my star tracker. Somewhat cryptically he said that it wouldn't hurt anything. Against my better judgement, I carefully followed the instructions exactly and installed the custom firmware the company provided. The tracker worked, but the camera still wouldn't connect. Actually, nothing seemed different at all. The last step in the instructions said to remove the SD card from the tracker and erase the custom patch file when I was done. Oddly, the file I had installed an hour earlier was already gone. Did the Polaris erase the file itself after the upgrade? Did anything happen at all? I'm sure this saga will continue. At some point they'll probably just tell me to use a different camera. My camera is on the approved list, but it never seemed to work well with the tracker. 

I only waste time with things like this because I've got plenty of time. Actually, I've got way too much time on my hands. There are no work deadlines anymore and thankfully Dawn is still pretty healthy. I write several articles a year for obscure magazines and halfheartedly try to fix things around the house. That's about it. I'd probably travel more if it weren't so expensive. I think I actually enjoy living in hotel rooms.

I was able to complete my full six mile route today. When the sun was behind a cloud it was actually fairly pleasant. Summer is coming though. I can feel it. I usually have to change clothes when I return home because I am hot and sweaty. My pace isn't what it used to be either. Even on a good day I'm slower. I distinctly remember walking a lot faster last year. Oh, well. This is one of the downsides of wearing a Fitbit all the time. You get a detailed record of your decline.

I'm seeing fire ant mounds in the yard again. They are all over the place in the park. Fire ants are nasty and I guess I'll have to go get some Amdro granules to kill them. I always worry about this kind of stuff with dogs though. Dogs get into everything. One of the reasons our yard doesn't look great is that I never use fertilizer. Our dogs have always liked to roll around in the grass. There is no sense in using something that could irritate their skin or even poison them if they ate it. At least fire ant mounds are small. I can block them off after I treat them.

There's a pretty moon out tonight. I should go out and photograph it with one of my telescopes. Why though? It's the same moon I've seen all my life. I've photographed the moon plenty of times before. That's my dilemma. I'm bored with things I've done before and apprehensive about trying new things. It kind of leaves me with writing a blog every night.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day